Rio Ferdinand insists Enzo Maresca must give “disrespectful” Noni Madueke a “two-week fine” after an incident in their 1-1 draw against Chelsea.
The Gunners went ahead through Gabriel Martinelli’s finish at the near post on the hour mark before Pedro Neto’s brilliant long-range strike flew into the net to equalise for the Blues on 70 minutes.
Mykhailo Mudryk replaced Madueke – who started on the right wing for Chelsea – just after Martinelli put Arsenal ahead at Stamford Bridge.
Madueke stormed off down the tunnel in a strop after Maresca took him off with Neto equalising moments later to salvage a point for Chelsea.
Comparing the incident to his time at Manchester United, Ferdinand insisted he’d be looking to fine Madueke if he was Maresca.
Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel: “You think (Danny) Welbeck or Tom Cleverly or Nani are going to storm off the pitch and throw their dummy out? It’s disrespectful to your teammates as well.
“It’s a young team. Who are the experienced players who are going to go in there and say, ‘Woah, we don’t accept that here’.
“And I understand his thinking but at the same time, I don’t understand why you are doing that.”
Ferdinand’s former Man Utd team-mate Owen Hargreaves gave his take on the incident, he added: “We would have never done it because Sir Alex (Ferguson) would have knocked your arse out.”
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Before Ferdinand hit back: “That’s where the manager comes in. I think the manager protecting him is mad.
“And that’s why I couldn’t be in there [as a manager] because I couldn’t come out and play the game where you say, ‘Yeah he was in the wrong but [he’s a good kid]’. Fined, that’s a two-week fine.”
After the match, Chelsea boss Maresca insisted that Madueke’s angry reaction was a “good thing” and that players are “never happy” when you take them off.
Maresca said: “The problem is when you change a player, they are never happy.
“Probably the only way to be happy is after the Wolves game where he scored a hat-trick and we changed him, so he was happy. It’s not only about Noni, it’s about all the players.
“It’s a good thing because they want to be there until the end. But in that moment, we thought in different ways, probably Pedro with Timber could be a little bit more aggressive – and also with Misha. So it was a tactical decision, no more than that.”
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